Spangled Emperor in the Shallows

I have a soft spot for Spangled Emperor. I know they're not rated as high as, say coral trout or red bass in sportfishing circles, but as a shallow water scrapper around our tropical reef systems I reckon they're a great fish. They pull hard, and because of they're often hooked near reef or isolated bommies, they're usually pretty determined to get back to the cover of structure. My introduction to spangled emperor was about 10 years ago along Exmouth's Ningaloo flats system, and I really enjoyed targeting them. On a recent trip to Cairns, hosted by Great Northern Brewery, we did an overnight trip to the Great Barrier Reef aboard Shikari. After a day fishing on the bluewater we anchored over a sand flat on the inside the reef. We had small bommies of coral studded around the boat, but we were largely anchored over clear sand. It's amazing what happens over the shallows once the sun has set, and after tea Chris Henry and myself flicked small cubes of pilchard on single size 2/0 hooks back behind the boat, and we threw in a few handfuls of chopped pilchard as berley. It didn't take long for the action to start, and we caught a couple of smaller spanglies around the 35cm to 40cm mark before a few bigger fish moved in. In the shallow water and on light gear, these fish ripped plenty of braid from our light outfits. The biggest spanglie went 64cm for the session. We got up early the next morning and flicked some baits again, but as soon as the sun popped up, the fish completely shut down. Gear used were Shimano Stradic FK 2500 reels matched with Anarchy 702 medium spin and Zodias 681 light spin rods with 10lb Power Pro braid.